Posts by phuzz

Re: IT equipment and weaponry aren't mutually exclusive

An unfortunate accident involving a window and a potted plant involves less legal ramifications...or so I've been taught.

Re: Finders Keepers

"So space stations aren’t like pheasants then? More like footballs."

This is the sort of plain spoken legal opinion I like to read.

Plus now I know not to set the dog on any bits of space station as I usually do for pheasants.

Re: I'd rather pay $20 a month for a VPN

Before you resort to ASCII boobs, don't forget that Wikipedia has images of many artworks, much of which contains naked people. But that's ok because this is art and definitely not porn.

Even if they blocked all the art on Wikipedia, there's still the image of the plaque on the Pioneer probes which you can find on the NASA website (ie an official US government website) which has a picture of naked people on it.

It's almost like the definition of porn is complicated.

Re: Nice try BUT Fail, Fail, Fail and Fail again. :)

"Recycled jokes are never as funny the second time"

No, but by the fifteenth time they start being funny again.

Re: "The UK has exceptionally high standards of data protection," she said

The UK has great standards of data protection. Before something is due to be declassified, all the embarrassing bits will get shredded. Can't get more secure than that!

Re: Typed 'Reboot' where ... ?

I have to admit to this one as well.

Now I check very carefully which machine the prompt is for.

(I've also be auto-logged out of a machine, and nearly run the command on the machine I was tunnelling from instead.)

Re: Shock! Great British Public not stupid!

I do tend to drink less these days, but that's not because the health warnings, it's because my hangovers are so much worse these days.

I remember as a student being able to go out drinking all night every night, with naught but an occasionally sore head. These days three pints on an empty stomach can leave me (wishing I was) bedridden.

Re: People who know told me

You'd be surprised how much fuel this approach can save.

Firstly the aircraft can add a few hundred metres per second to the rocket,. Not much, but it's a start.

The largest help though is lifting the rocket up the first few thousand meters, because that has a relatively large effect on the air density that the rocket has to push though. It also reduces gravity losses somewhat.

As other people have noted, it also give you complete freedom in orbital inclination, and launch times and locations.

Re: Give them an inch...

"You can just imagine what #hashtag Amber Rudd signs off"

Using the latest in making-stuff-up technology, I can exclusively reveal to you how such a meeting happens:

GCHQ: "Hello HomeSec, we'd like to tap all the communications of this person"

Home Sec: "Are they a naughty person?"

G: "Oh yes"

HS: "Oh go on then, here you go *scribbles signature*"

Check and balances eh?

Re: Historical?

"Just like with games the pirate gets the better experience"

That's true of films, but I've found with television programs that pirated shows often have really obnoxious advertising banners across the bottom of the screen at some points (I have no idea how US TV watchers put up with them). Netflix et al. don't have this, (although Amazon do insist on showing an advert before shows which is bloody annoying when you've paid already.)

Plus, and I think I'm probably like most pirates in this, if I can watch a show legally without much messing about, then I will. Then I know the creators are hopefully getting a bit of cash, and the viewer figures will be one higher so there's slightly less chance of the show getting cancelled. Unfortunately there's a lot of stuff I watch that is unavailable if you don't live in the US, so piracy it is.

Just after I passed my test I had to put petrol in my (mum's) car for the first time.

I was pretty sure I knew how it worked, having watched people do it many times before. So I park next to the pump, get out, stick the key in the lock, turn the key and try to remove the cap.

No deal. For some reason the cap would just revolve, without ever unscrewing. So, I put the key back in, lock it and unlock it again and keep trying, but still no success.

I kept fiddling for five minutes, trying to lock and unlock it multiple times, while my bother, who was sat in the car with his girlfriend of the time got more and more embarrassed. I even tried asking a bloke who'd just driven up but he had no idea.

It wasn't until I tried locking the cap and then turning it that I realised what was happening. My mum hadn't bothered to lock the petrol cap, so every time I'd "unlocked" it, I'd actually been locking it, which made it freewheel rather than unscrew.

I did feel like a bit of a numpty.

Re: Call it high-throughput fiber

"Just call it electromagnetic radiation"

If you use the word 'radiation' then they'll probably just assume you're a terrorist trying to smuggle a nuke.

You know how many tips you get from yank tourists if you can draw a shamrock in a Guinness head?

They practically throw the money at you.

Very lucrative skill, and pretty easy to learn.

Re: I can see their point

I think in the US they consider 420 to be a high number.

Re: What about collisions with spacecraft on the way to Mars

"so are the chances of a crash happening infinitesimal?"

Yes.

See, the thing about space is that it's big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. (etc.)

Re: Anyone want to make a lot of money?

Ok, so what we really do is tell the government that we can do the work, and that we'll need £££££ (and every six months say it's tricky and could we have more £££ please).

Then we create a demo system that does whatever they want.

Then we take the rest of the money and set up a bolt hole a long way away, and then run away with the cash.

That way no impossible 'secure backdoors' need to be made, and we get loads of money.

It's the perfect plan, all we need is a name for our company...

Re: My prediction

"They tested on their training data. Don't do that. Seriously, don't do that."

Voiceover: Of course, they were testing on their training data.

Re: We don't need no education

"With education spending being the HIGHEST IN THE WORLD"

No. The US is actually the 56th highest in the world behind, well basically everywhere.

"per-dollar performance some of the LOWEST"

Well, this is a tricky one to prove either way, what's a measure of 'education performance'?. Different countries have different educational focuses, eg, some countries focus on maths skills as being more important than languages. Some countries ignore humanities, in favour of the sciences.

Either way, the US has a slightly above average rate of secondary education, which given how little they spend is ok.

Not great, but not terrible either, which seems a fair assessment of US education in general.

My last job used $companyname.co.uk as the internal AD domain name. I never did work out whose bright idea that was but I ended up having to use so many terrible DNS hacks just so people could still get their email from both inside and outside the office (for example).